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Bruce,
my forecast isn't five degrees higher than yours, but rather ten to twelve degrees higher. At one point weather.com was predicting 116, but now the highest I see in the forecast is 114 or 112, depending on which report you are looking at. Our night temperatures are also high (pretty unusual for us) so I figure anything on the plants right now so I'm counting on all of the open blossoms right now to drop off. I'll probably get out and fertilize once the weather cools down. I haven't done any fertilizing yet this year, and other years I've fertilized every 2-4 weeks starting at blossom set with kelp and Peaceful Valley's Omega 1-5-5.

I actually picked a Cougar Red yesterday, and I've also had a handful of Matt's Wild Cherries. My overall fruit set isn't as good as last year, but it isn't too bad considering the late start and awful weather.

I haven't sent along any money, and I'm sorry about that. I'm planning on attending and I want to pitch in as well.

I am daily examining my plants for fruit set. I hope to have some ready for the tasting August 26th. Is it generally five weeks from fruit set to ripe fruit? I think that holds true for the cherry/small fruited tomatoes, but it can take longer for the big beefsteak ones, especially if the weather is cool.

Reporting from Oakland: we've had some warm days here sandwiched with fog.

Well that heat wave ended early. Weather has been great with more in the forecast. I am getting loads of fruit set, picking a few cherry toms, and color showing on a few tomatoes on some weaker plants.
I was pondering doing a garden tour this year. Maybe the same weekend of the tasting. Anyone interested?
Brad.................

Hey!!!!!! What's going on over here! After reading a rather ummm....interesting thread, I finally figured out where to look for the action.I'd love to contibute and I have a paypal account so I'll send an email, but maybe like last year I won't make it. It'll be knee deep in soccer season and school starts here in Vacaville two days before.PS; I'm Nanelle on GW.

That heat didn’t end early enough for me but the forecast does look great now. I have lots of fried brown flowers and a few Nyagous and a Brad's Black heart have sunscald. Fortunately the temps are pretty steadily in the mid 80’s now and I’m getting lots of new blossoms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad

I was pondering doing a garden tour this year. Maybe the same weekend of the tasting. Anyone interested?

Sounds great, either day works for me, the NORCATT tasting or Morningsun’s tasting. It'd be great to see 'Wild Boar Farms'. Sunday might be better for those attending the Morningsun event since they’ll be so close.

We could even have a Nor Cal La Tomatina a few days before the official one in Spain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenThumbGal_07

What about labels? Should we include seed origin as well as name? What about font?

If everyone agrees I can print up scoring sheets for what people bring so everyone’s will be identical. Something similar to Morningsun’s, maybe with the grower/(seed source) on the back? I’d just need everyone to e-mail me a week or two beforehand a list of anything they might be bringing. If something happens and a variety doesn’t make it we’ll just toss that sheet.

Input anyone? We should decide earlier rather than scrambling later.

__________________
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Oh goody..things are starting to happen!! I'd like to see plans come together before I buy my plane ticket. 8)

Nanette, welcome! Glad you made it over to the best tomato site on the web.

Maybe we should have a head count so we know how many people to expect. Pam and I are planning to come, so that's two.

Bruce, it would be great to have the scoring sheets done ahead of time. Thank you for volunteering.

And speaking of volunteering, I'd like to see Diana's initial investment for the park repaid, if it isn't already. Last post I saw, she still was twenty $$ short. Can two more of you please step up and send $10 to her?

Did we pick a start time? We needed more tomato cutting time last year. I don't remember what time we got there. Was it 11:00? Is that early enough to start sorting and cutting?

Thanks to Nanette and Bob (I pm'd you), the park is now covered! Thanks to *everyone*!

We have the park for 'all day', which was cheaper than the hours we thought we'd need from earlier in the thread, so we essentially have it from 1:00 am until 3:00 pm.

My full sized tomatos are beginning to ripen! I have Mikado Violeta, Purple Cherokee (this is questionable. I bought a 'Purple Cherokee' from the local Ace, that was a Morningstar tomato, but it's a red tomato, not a purple. But it's so dependable and bears so heavily and early, it's my garden favorite!!) and Black Seaman turning color. Black Zebra, Crimean Rose, Azoychka, Berkeley Tie Dye, Pruden's Purple and Black Trifele are also bearing exceptionally well. And I've been munching on Sungolds and Black Cherry's for a week now.

Besides herbs and fruit trees, I confess to having ONLY tomatos in my garden this year. I had started a number of peppers and egglplants, but they got eaten by slugs early on, and never replaced. I also put in a token squash and cucumber right before the heat wave, and they're stunted and just hanging on, with my tomato forest all around! lol